Acid Eaters

Release Date: December 1993 | Producer: Scott Hackwith | Label: Radioactive

It probably should have stayed a curio EP. That was the plan, at least until manager Gary Kurfirst pushed to expand the Ramones’ covers effort into a full-blown album with the promise of big advances and equally hefty cuts of Acid Eaters’ sales. The band had a long and affectionate tradition of covers, always smattering their LPs and live sets with the rock and pop gems from their youth, kicked off in the studio with their take on Chris Montez’s ‘Let’s Dance’ from the word go on Ramones.

Yet, there’s a perfunctory air that nags throughout Acid Eaters. While capturing some of Joey’s finest vocals, his version of Eric Burdon and The Animals’ ‘When I Was Young attests to the emotional depths he was able to muster underneath his nonchalance, and Jefferson Airplane’s ‘Somebody to Love’ swaggers with renewed bite, the rest of the rock mining venture rarely excavates any cuts that render the whole affair worth the trouble.

Standout track: ‘Somebody to Love’

Mondo Bizarro

Release Date: September 1992 | Producer: Ed Stasium | Label: Radioactive

There was something of a new chapter on Ramones album number 12. The first for the 1990s, jumping from their longstanding Sire label to Radioactive, and the first to feature bassist CJ after Dee Dee’s departure, all heralded a comeback aura for 1992’s Mondo Bizarro. With some young blood in the gang, Ramones suddenly found themselves at the centre of the decade’s grunge and alternative rock bloom they’d lent a crucial hand in paving.

CJ indeed injects a new dimension to the Ramones, but it’s the old bassist’s songcraft chops that do much of the heavy lifting: ‘Main Man’, a classic Dee Dee ripper and ‘Poison Heart’, the album’s best pop stab. Otherwise, the rest of Mondo Bizarro chugs along in familiar territory with a chunk of cuts that veers between capable and average, sitting tepidly in the final batch of the Ramones’ LP legacy over the great return initially promised.

Standout track: ‘Main Man’

Animal Boy

Release Date: May 1986 | Producer: Jean Beauvoir | Label: Sire

The late 1980s were rocky for many bands, even for those who had been burnished by punk’s original wave. Ten years in, the Ramones already counted some minor stylistic resets and ‘return to forms’ when Animal Boy was unleashed to the wild, a record leaden with the whole chore of the operation; the internal fractures began to crack the gang in earnest during the fraught sessions.

Drummer Richie offers the goofily fantastic ‘Somebody Put Something in My Drink’ which does plenty of heavy lifting, and ‘Mental Hell’ captures a sincerely anguished howl from Joey, but Animal Boy’s ultimately let down by soggy synths and a serious lack of gas in the tank. Johnny would remark that it was from here that setlists would stop relying on new material and rest on their early crowdpleasers.

Standout track: ‘Somebody Put Something in My Drink’

¡Adios Amigos!

Release Date: July 1995 | Producer: Daniel Rey | Label: Radioactive

There’s definitely a bolder, brasher shine that gleams out of ¡Adios Amigos! Dropped in 1995 before their final tour the following year, the Ramones managed to work through their internal acrimony and simmering feuds and fully realise the band dynamics with CJ’s input after Mondo Bizarro’s wobble. Johnny’s riffs hit with greater potency, CJ steps behind the mic with further ease, and the whole record scores the sound of an old master shaking off their doldrums.

They didn’t whack two Allosaurus dinosaurs on the cover for nothing, albeit the sombreros are inexplicable. The band were becoming veterans, and wisely knew to bow out while the magic was still half-there, ¡Adios Amigos! racing through a confident set of punk rock, including ‘Makin’ Monsters for My Friends’, ‘The Crusher’, and Joey’s fantastically evocative ‘She Talks to Rainbows’. While still stuck with one foot in the fatigue of the Ramones machine, the CBGBs legends exited the game on a relative standard that few of their peers ever touched.

Standout track: ‘She Talks to Rainbows’

Subterranean Jungle

Release Date: February 1983 | Producer: Ritchie Cordell and Glen Kolotkin | Label: Sire

Supposedly, Johnny managed to wrestle creative control back for Ramones’ seventh LP, tiring of their chase for radio pop fodder and keen to brandish their classic, turbo garage rock sound once again. They went some way in reigniting their old fire. While a beefier muscle indeed flexes on Subterranean Jungle, the record still feels tethered to a semi-commercial compromise they’d take the next album to truly shake off. Opening with two covers was unwise too, Little Darlings’ ‘Little Bit O’ Soul’ and Boyfriends’ ‘I Need Your Love’, set the album off to a jarring tone.

Still, amid Dee Dee’s drug issues and Marky and Joey’s drink problem, the Ramones were still able to whip up a scorcher like ‘Psycho Therapy’, incredibly issued as a mere B-side to the ‘Time Has Come Today’ single. Still licking their wounds from the recent sonic dilution and lacking the strong songs of their former pop offerings, Subterranean Jungle stands as a capable transit entry to the Ramones oeuvre, headed toward a bolder destination, just like its 57th Street and Sixth Avenue subway cover.

Standout track: ‘Psycho Therapy’

Halfway to Sanity

Release Date: September 1987 | Producer: Daniel Rey and Ramones | Label: Sire

It’s amazing what “a dingy place in midtown” can do for a struggling band. Cooped up in New York’s Intergalactic Studios while their routine interpersonal turmoils continued to gnaw, the Ramones managed to cut a lean, hard slice of punk and roll which stands far better than critical memory cares to acknowledge. The last time Richie would sit on the drum stool, he’d pen the thrashing ‘I’m Not Jesus’, which hits as hard as any of the Ramones’ best during the late 1980s, and ‘Weasel Face’ wields Joey’s finest cartoon snarl behind the mic.

Elsewhere, Dee Dee’s songwriting is as sharp as ever. ‘I Wanna Live’ manages to marry pop hook with punk grit much better than anything from Subterranean Jungle, and ‘Garden of Serenity’ leaps out of the speakers with hacking drama and deserves far more Ramones classic stature than it gets. Overlooked and unfairly dismissed upon release, Halfway to Sanity, while not bursting with essentiality, still captures the gang, spiked with a fired-up spirit for their tenth studio offering.

Standout track: ‘Garden of Serenity’

Pleasant Dreams

Release Date: July 1981 | Producer: Graham Gouldman | Label: Sire

It’s likely Johnny and Joey were at their lowest ebb during the Pleasant Dreams sessions, albeit for wildly different reasons. The Ramones’ guitarist privately felt their garage formula was too watered down in their chart chase, while their frontman was battling deep grievances over his girlfriend, Linda Daniele, leaving him for Johnny. Such a clash of passions spawned two of the Ramones’ finest songs: ‘She’s a Sensation’ is a giddy love ditty, and, although contested by Marky and Johnny, at least partly fuelled by the heartache of ‘The KKK Took My Baby Away’.

Johnny’s gripes about the softer production are correct, but Pleasant Dreams gets away with it by the stellar strength of the songs. ‘7-11’s’ bubblegum stroll shines infectiously, ‘This Business is Killing Me’ features some of the band’s finest harmonies courtesy of 10cc bassist Graham Gouldman’s production flair, and ‘We Want the Airwaves’ dwells in psych-hard rock that echoes Neil Young’s ‘Like a Hurricane’. It might not be a punk record, but Pleasant Dreams is definitely a solid Ramones album and worth any newcomer’s time.

Standout track: ‘The KKK Took My Baby Away’

Brain Drain

Release Date: May 1989 | Producer: Bill Laswell, Jean Beauvoir, and Daniel Rey | Label: Sire

The Ramones’ last album of the 1980s, and for Sire, is largely remembered for their late career ‘Pet Sematary’ theme for 1989’s namesake Stephen King movie, a catchy as hell pop number that peaked high on the various rock charts and was much better than its Razzie nomination would indicate, and the storming ‘I Believe in Miracles’ opener, boasting a gripping Johnny riff swagger and such lyrical wide-eyed optimism from Dee Dee you’d think it was a Joey number.

But such gems don’t do all the heavy lifting. Brain Drain’s a cracker Ramones LP, full of meaty charge under Bill Laswell’s majority production, and crackles with electricity. ‘Don’t Bust My Chops’ is nice and snotty with a thumping solo, ‘Punishment Fits the Crime’ radiates a new skulking glow with Plasmatics’ Richie Stotts sharing songwriting duties, and then there’s Joey’s festive ‘Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)’, a sleighbelled rocker up there with the best seasonal hits. Tough yet joyous, Ramones wouldn’t cut a record as good as Brain Drain ever again.

Standout track: ‘I Believe in Miracles’

Leave Home

Release Date: January 1977 | Producer: Tony Bongiovi and T Erdelyi | Label: Sire

It’d been barely nine months before the Ramones were back in the studio after their debut, but this time, Sire were happy to chuck $10,000 their way for a production upgrade and Tony Bongiovi’s expert engineering chops. Gone was the cheap and cheerful garage lo-fi; in came an expanded polish ready to breathe life into the emerging sophistication from Joey and Dee Dee’s songwriting pen.

Leave Home’s a good album, and the aural polish certainly elevates the record’s impact, but the chunk of songs generally don’t venture too far from territory already well established. That said, Ramones’ sophomore still shoots fantastic cuts, from ‘Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment’, ‘I Remember You’, and the sorely underrated ‘Commando’. Despite the cash Sire threw at the album, Leave Home didn’t reach the same Billboard 200 heights as its LP predecessor, but it did cement their longstanding and dedicated UK fandom.

Standout track: ‘Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment’

Too Tough to Die

Release Date: October 1984 | Producer: T. Erdelyi and Ed Stasiuma | Label: Sire

1984 brought the first of the Ramones’ many ‘comebacks’. A charted course for pop appeal hadn’t yielded the chart wins Sire was hoping for, and the roll call of hotshot producers had pulled the band too far from their comfort zones. Johnny would finally get his way, roping in old drummer Tommy to share production duties and cutting the infinitely meaner Too Tough to Die.

They hadn’t ever sounded so metal. As well as first capturing Dee Dee’s livewire vocals for ‘Wart Hog’ and ‘Endless Vacation’, a hardcore pummelling swaggers and throws punches all over their eighth album, which had been missing in the previous years. ‘Mama’s Boy’ stands as the perfect opener, all sneering attack and jabbing riffs, then the introspective jump to ‘I’m Not Afraid of Life’ shows Dee Dee’s scabrous lyrical reflections could still flex punk muscle. With Richie’s new drumming touch and a sharper sense of vitality, Too Tough to Die stood for many fans as their last real classic LP swing.

Standout track: ‘Mama’s Boy’

End of the Century

Release Date: February 1980 | Producer: Phil Spector | Label: Sire

None of End of the Century’s jump into 1960s-style pop should have been much of a surprise to the punk faithful. A fervent love of the Hot 100 hits of their youth sparked the Ramones’ set from day one, be it bubblegum fun, R&B smashes, and the early British invasion. Essentially, anything before the counterculture began to curdle into prog and yacht rock. So a decision to recruit Wrecking Crew legend Phil Spector’s production touch was the ultimate culmination of the band’s formative influences.

Wrapped in typical Spector lore, from supposed gunpoint sessions to hundreds of takes driving the ‘plug in and play’ punk group mad, End of the Century stands as a much richer and colourful record, its low regard among the band and critics does a disservice to. It still rocks; ‘I’m Affected’ and ‘Let’s Go’ are perfectly raucous thrashers, but the nostalgic nod to their youth’s soundtrack shines a light on just how sharp their popcraft really was, with ‘Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio?’ and ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll High School’ dizzyingly fun cuts. And despite Joey’s loathing, the orchestral cover of The Ronettes’ ‘Baby, I Love You’ is nowhere near the blight on Ramones’ record the band would convince themselves.

Standout track: ‘Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio?’

Rocket to Russia

Release Date: November 1977 | Producer: Tony Bongiovi and T Erdelyi | Label: Sire

Reportedly, on the first day’s sessions for their third album, Johnny tipped up to Mediasound Studios with a copy of the Sex Pistols’ ‘God Save the Queen’ and quipped to engineer Ed Stasium, “These guys ripped us off, and I want to sound better than this”. Whether punk was burnished in New York is up for debate, but the Ramones had already scored something for a legacy before Rocket to Russia was even out.

Flush with another hefty production cheque from Sire, Rocket to Russia managed the golden heights that Leave Home just about missed, chiefly a more gleaming sonic punch but with a songbook to match. ‘Sheena Is a Punk Rocker’, ‘Teenage Lobotomy’, and ‘Rockaway Beach’ are all indispensable staples that they’d perform right up til their final live bow over 20 years later. For many, Ramones’ third LP effort was their finest hour, striking a bullseye balance of garage attack and pop whimsy that captured a slice of Americana just as elemental as Chuck Berry or Jerry Lew Lewis in the rock and roll story.

Standout track: ‘Sheena Is a Punk Rocker’

Ramones

Release Date: April 1976 | Producer: Craig Leon and T Erdelyi | Label: Sire

It can’t be overstated just how seismic the Ramones’ debut landed on the New York underground. Just as rock was losing its blood in a lampoon of proggy spectacle and arena parody, four leathered street kids from Queens decided to harken back to the bubblegum hits and early British invasion when music was exciting, dosed with a little Detroit garage, to spin a turbo-charged punk blast that the CBGBs congregants didn’t know they needed.

Future records would enjoy beefier production, but the sheer energy of the songs hasn’t dimmed one iota on 1976’s Ramones. ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’s’ lightning attack, ‘53rd & 3rd’s’ seamy urban reportage, ‘I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend’s’ romantic stir, and an acerbic cut about a Hitler Youth member’s plans for domination all swirl around Ramones’ intoxicatingly febrile air. While inevitably hijacked by commercial forces in the ensuing years, the black and white snap of the band leaning against Albert’s Garden’s wall will endure as an emblem of rebellions for decades yet, as well as the ultimate punk gateway for generations to come.

Standout track: ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’

Road to Ruin

Release Date: September 1978 | Producer: T Erdelyi and Ed Stasium | Label: Sire

Three albums in, and the Ramones knew they had to evolve. Punk in general was in need of a shake-up, having lapsed into the mohawk and tartan slack clichés before the decade was even out. In response, a renewed Ramones with Marky sat on the drum stool for the first time and deployed their increasing studio polish for a pop punk jewel that seemed to hit a bullseye on all their fizzing dimensions.

There’s barely a cut that goes wrong on Road to Ruin. Packed to the brim with maddeningly infectious numbers from ‘She’s the One’ to ‘I Just Want to Have Something to Do’, sharp detours into folksy twang on ‘Don’t Come Close’, while still burning rippers like ‘Go Mental’ and ‘Bad Brain’, the latter inspiring the namesake hardcore band. Melding all such flavours into one perfect whole, ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’ manages a rare trick, charged with full-fat punk fervour while also glowing with pop vim that even the most committed naysayer won’t help but nod along to.

In short, it’s about as perfect a Ramones album as it gets. Honouring their punk template while expanding their peripheries to stave off stale garage retreads, Road to Ruin is all things Ramones, romantic, snarky, streetwise, introspective, and always teeming with stone cold cool.

Standout track: ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’